Diablo 3 - German vzbv Sends Blizzard Cease&Desist

June 21st, 2012, 22:35

Apparently the official German consumer advice centre (vzbv) was not amused by the stuff Blizzard printed on the Diablo 3 box. Or rather by the things they allegedly forgot to mention.
The vzbv believes Blizzard breaks German law by either not mentioning the following points or not explaining them with sufficient clarity:

permanent internet connection required

Battle.net registration is not a one-time procedure to enter a key

D3 can only be used if the player creates a personalized account on Battle.net

So the vzbv sent Blizzard a cease & desist letter for infringement of competition laws. Blizzard has time until July 13th to sign the C&D or risk a trial in front of a German court.
Found at GamersGlobal.de, who also have additional infos in their column the games lawyer.More information.

It imho depends on how clearly the information was printed on the package.

I really don't know. To me, this case is unique, but it is alreadyknown that laws say that a permanent internet connection MUST be printed on the package, if it is required.. And, as far as i understood the text, the package didn't have the word "permanent" on it. Which is clearly against the laws.

About the other stuff : I really don't know.

Edit : Points 2 & 3 really mean, as far as I have understood it, that entering a key (a registration key, of course) would mean that this game can be played offline as well. But as everyone knows, this is not the case. The package seems to miss the important information that the game can ONLY be played with a personalized account (and German official Data Protectors are very twitchy about personalization and unnecessarily giving away personal data !) and not only by simply entering a reg key. And on top of all that, playing is only possible in online mode. Nothing offline anymore.

Abnd they argue that this important information isn't clearly enough on the package.

I suspect that someone had already sent a complaint about all of this to the vzbz, because usually they don't take that detailed looks at games. Although they sometimes indeed do.

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by screeg
They also forgot the disclaimer that they're only leasing you the game until such time as running the servers is no longer profitable, or the company goes under.

Not quite. German law is a bit different than U.S. law.
As far as I have understood it - and I'm not a lawyer, mind you, German law says that a buyer actually owns the software package. Deconstruction, disassembling and reverse engineering is not allowed, but you really OWN the package. No leasing.

I don't know,however, what's REALLY standing on the package - simply because I was never interested in buying the game.

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Not quite. German law is a bit different than U.S. law.
As far as I have understood it - and I'm not a lawyer, mind you, German law says that a buyer actually owns the software package. Deconstruction, disassembling and reverse engineering is not allowed, but you really OWN the package. No leasing.

Originally Posted by booboo
But I'm sure Blizz will find some way to weasel out of this.

Maybe, maybe not… but more likely not. We have extremely strong pro-consumerist legislation/jurisdiction in Germany so it wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard would end up signing the C&D to avoid a court trial that they would most likely lose due to said pro-consumerist tendencies.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Not quite. German law is a bit different than U.S. law.
As far as I have understood it - and I'm not a lawyer, mind you, German law says that a buyer actually owns the software package. Deconstruction, disassembling and reverse engineering is not allowed, but you really OWN the package. No leasing.

I don't know,however, what's REALLY standing on the package - simply because I was never interested in buying the game.

Doesn't really matter. You may own the content in Germany but since the content won't work without the servers and since the servers are NOT located in Germany there is not much German law can do about it. This is the internet we're talking about and thus a lot of convoluted international trade laws applies where there are always loopholes where national laws can't touch you.

At best this will make Blizzard reconsider their approach to marketing/packaging (that would be great and a certain Win scenario for gamers around the globe) and at worsts Blizzard will stop selling games in Germany (Lose/Lose scenario for all parties … unless you're a Blizzard hater )

— "Chess in particular had always annoyed him. It was the dumb way the pawns went off and slaughtered their fellow pawns while the kings lounged about doing nothing that always got to him; if only the pawns united, maybe talked the rooks around, the whole board could've been a republic in a dozen moves."- Commander Vimes in Thud! by Terry Pratchett

Originally Posted by fatBastard()
and since the servers are NOT located in Germany

Official Data Protectors are concerned about this regarding to "Cloud" Services.
Stealing of data by the Secret Service of the country the servers stand in is feared.

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)